The Coup
by Palladius
Summary: Most would have seen the options and agreed to the deal. But Natasha Shepard wasn't most people. And she really, really didn't like working with Cerberus. Mass Effect 2 AU, continued by popular demand
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This randomly occurred to me while trying to Krogan-smash my way through writer's block on The Space Race. Have to admit, playing ME2 I so badly wanted to do this.

NEEMA, MIGRANT FLEET - AUGUST 16

In summary: Retrieval of objective Veetor'Nara nar Celisus successful despite Cerberus ground team operating in colony. Ground team led by individual alpha masquerading as deceased Spectre, Commander Natasha'Shepard vas Normandy. Marine Prazza'Oron vas Omboro submitted for court-martial for disobedience of orders that led to the deaths of Kaeli'Selim vas Omboro, Maru'Nostro vas Kerrita, Aemi'Nostro vas Kerrita, Oskah'Timu vas Rayya and Soma'Telan vas Neema. End report.

Tali shut down her Omnitool and closed her eyes, thinking. That thing running around with Cerberus guns and goons couldn't be Shepard, her Shepard. But it was a very convincing facsimile. The black hair and tanned skin were all the same but her scar from Torfan was gone, replaced by a fine tracery of cybernetics glowing through the cracks in her visage. She had spoken like Shepard too, soft even tones that could calm a charging Krogan or a scandalised Hanar and convince someone to link suit environments with a Vorcha, the smooth mirror surface of her complete calm broken only by the odd flash of her trademark dry wit. She had seen that voice at work on Noveria, the Citadel, even Virmire. It wasn't a stretch to imagine her voice tolling in the helmets of the soldiers she had sent to their deaths on Torfan, urging them onwards with the gentle unstoppability of a glacier even as they were gunned down by desperate slavers. The Cerberus clone, or synthetic, or impersonator, whatever it was, had the same aura of quiet implacability that had allowed her Commander to end a thousand battles without firing a shot.

She had to admit, for a while she had thought Shepard was the real thing. It had taken a long time to learn to read Shepard's moods on the SR1 through her unflappable veneer but she had gotten the hang of it. It was all in the eyes, and when that Cerberus whore had tried to take Veetor away Shepard's eyes had burned with murderous intent. But the more she thought about it the more she was convinced it could not be Shepard. The eyes were key. She had seen Shepard's eyes while they were raiding Cerberus bases back on the SR1 and the mere thought of being on the wrong end of that rage had made her want to curl up into a very small ball. There was no way she would ever work for Cerberus.

Tali's Omnitool buzzed and she glanced down at it, frowning slightly. The sender was marked as an unintelligible line of code in a digital language she didn't recognise. Intrigued, she opened the message. The body of the text was a meaningless slew of numbers that almost looked like strings of co-ordinates. Then she saw the subject line and almost fainted.

TAK-3112/45/7 A.M.V. V23XXY/41

The line was meaningless apart from three letters. A.M.V. She had never expected to see those letters again. It could only mean one thing. Natasha Shepard was alive. And she wanted to talk.

Pulling her old, battered paper copy of Isaac Asimov's I, Robot out of one of her suit's many pouches, she started to decode the message.

URDNOT CITY, TUCHANKA - AUGUST 16

"Clan Quash pledges one hundred and fifty Warriors and three Battlemasters to Warlord Urdnot Wrex."

Wrex nodded contentedly. Three full companies. Clan Quash's territory straddled the wreck of the Fist of Bostra, a Turian dreadnought brought down by ground fire at the close of the Rebellions. Even today eezo still leaked from the gargantuan ship's drive core, meaning Clan Quash produced some of the most powerful Krogan biotics. Although the clan wasn't as large as Urdnot, Weyrloc or Ravanor they made a powerful ally. His army already measured almost twenty thousand crests strong and only his refusal to name the target of his Oorloc, or Blood War, was stopping the other clans from aligning against him. Nevertheless he had to remain vigilant. The Quash warriors could be stationed at the southern outposts, which were at the moment manned almost entirely by Ravanor and faced the bulk of Weyrloc territory. Ravanor and Quash had little bad blood between them and even Weyrloc would think twice before raiding another outpost if he stationed them there. However his western border was patrolled mainly by untrained crests and Gatatog, whose loyalty was anything but assured. Perhaps one of the companies could shore up that border and intimidate the Gatatog into paying more than lip service to his cause.

"Clan Raik pledges forty Warriors and Weaponmaster Katannu to Warlord Urdnot Wrex."

That dedication was little more than symbolic - Raik was a sub-clan of Urdnot in everything but name. Nevertheless they produced some of the most ferocious warriors he had ever seen. Their distinctive black crests, blue warpaint and deep navy eyes burned with the fury of ten thousand years of warrior tradition. Having Raik on his side had already spurred Drogal and Tarn to align with him also. The Weaponmaster would be an interesting one to have though. Only time would tell if Katannu would see things Wrex's way or if he would be another destruction obsessed stick-in-the-sand like Fortack.

"Clan Kellar pledges forty scouts to Warlord Urdnot Wrex."

Wrex ignored the derisive snorts of the other clan leaders as the scout captain presented his loyalty stone to Wrex. Fighting alongside Shepard had taught him the value of scouts. A single word and that slippery little Quarian girl of hers would be off like a shot, returning five minutes later with the positions of every Geth in the area. The Kellar scouts all carried enormous sniper rifles on their backs and braces of grenades round their chests. Wrex had a flashback to that Vakarian kid pulling off headshots with his much beloved rifle and the Quarian detonating grenades she had snuck into place fifteen minutes earlier, blowing Geth into the air or cracking their cover into fragments. Shepard had used her squad like a precision instrument, each component performing a different duty that fit together to obliterate Geth positions that could have destroyed twenty charging Krogan before they got in shotgun range. It wasn't very Krogan of him but Wrex needed more scouts. The Kellar were a mountain clan, used to moving around and scaling cliffs any other Krogan would be a fool to attempt. They would be a useful addition to his army.

"No more pledges to hear today, Warlord. How would you like to deploy the new additions?"

His mind quickly ran through his options.

"Move two companies of Quash to the southern outposts and the other company along with the Raik warriors to the western outposts. The Kellar can be folded into our scout unit."

As always, Gatatog Uvenk was the first to protest.

"My warriors have the western border well in hand! We require no reinforcement!"

Wrex shrugged.

"Reinforcement? Try replacement. I've decided to rotate the Gatatog to the Tomkah divisions."

Uvenk racked his brain for ways to take offence at the statement and couldn't come up with anything, so he said nothing. Under Wrex's leadership the Tomkah divisions had been transformed from a collection of ramshackle transport trucks to an elite assault legion, the Tomkahs themselves coated in thick armour plate and bristling with cannons, packed full of hardened warriors armed to the teeth with shotguns, machine guns and heavy weapons. The Tomkahs would charge the enemy positions, blitzing them with mounted weapons as they rammed through, then the warriors would pour out, guns blazing. The additional use of the Tomkah divisions was that they were under Wrex's personal command and every Krogan who joined the divisions came out loyal to Wrex, sometimes even over their own clan leaders. Uvenk was in a spot. To refuse would lose him the respect of his warriors, to agree would lose him their loyalty. He eventually concurred.

Wrex called the deliberations short as he received a message on his Omnitool and took it to his private heap of rubble to read. He almost instantly recognised the subject line.

RVM-9624/4/12 H.M.R. X13IOT/11

He chuckled to himself as he plodded over to an old battered metal chest and fished his paper copy of Homer's Illiad out.

"Should have known the void would spit you right back out, Shepard."

He ran a clawed thumb along the edge of the page.

"Page 311 ... Fifth line ... Eigth word ..."

TERCVARA DISTRICT, OMEGA - AUGUST 16

Garrus had been bent over his copy of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy for almost four hours now, glancing back and forth between it and his Omnitool and flipping through the pages. Eventually Erash walked up to him, blinking his four eyes.

"What are you doing, Boss?"

He glanced up at the Batarian techie.

"Decoding a message."

"Huh?"

He showed Erash his Omnitool, with a message open on it that was nothing but a string of numbers.

312/12/5

82/9/2

164/3/11

And so on.

"It's a Human code language called book code."

He tapped a talon on the paper book.

"Each set of numbers is page number, line number and word number. You go through the set book and find each word that the numbers correspond to and they make up the message. Unless someone has the correct edition of the correct book they can't decode it. A Human I worked with a couple of years back used to send messages in book code. Pain in the mandibles to decode but completely secure."

"So what does the message say?"

Garrus looked up and saw Sensat, Melanis, Mierin and Grundan Krul had also gathered round to see what the fuss was about. He favoured them with a grin.

"One of my old buddies wants my help stealing a frigate from Cerberus."

CIC, NORMANDY SR2, AUGUST 17

"There's a couple of messages at your private terminal, Commander."

"Who from?"

"Uh ..."

Natasha turned to Kelly, letting the redhead see the fire in her eyes. She knew that despite the utter calm she enforced on herself her eyes betrayed her tightly leashed emotions. She used it to her advantage, shutting the usually perky Chambers down with an entertaining squeak.

"I know you read all my messages. Who from?"

"Cerberus Command. The messages are Level One classified, for your eyes only. Even Miranda can't read those ones."

Natasha favoured Kelly with a small smile.

"Thank you for your honesty Kelly. Please could you return these to Miranda? I found them in my room and I think they belong to her."

She felt a twist of wry amusement as she dropped the plastic bag full of bugs and cameras in Kelly's hands. She memorised Kelly's reaction and replayed it in her head - good. She got them all.

Padding over to her private terminal, she checked the trio of messages. Three replies. She uploaded the messages to her Omnitool, then read them through, her eidetic memory flipping through the pages of the books and translating the messages as she read. The first one was from Tali.

###

Codebook: Homer's Illiad

It is you! I doubted it really was when we met on freedom progress but now I am certain. I am glad you have returned.

I have spoken to the leaders and they agree to send me with nine warriors to rescue your ship. Tell us a time and we will find you on the city of rock where all things end. We will take the sailors without death if you command it.

So happy you have returned.

###

She smiled as she deleted the message, already committed the contents to memory, and opened up the second one.

###

Codebook: The Bible

Shepherd! Should have known you would not stay in heaven. It is past time you got back to the kingdom of the living.

I will certainly send my best followers to help you take the ship. We can meet on hell in the sky any time you choose.

###

The third message was from Garrus. She hadn't contacted Ash or Liara - she was certain Cerberus had agents throughout the Alliance although she would miss the Gunnery Chief's dry banter and impressive aim, and she had never much liked Liara.

###

Codebook: I, Robot

Damn glad to have you back boss. Once we kick the dog out we have some catching up to do.

I am already on the station you mentioned with some friends. Give the word and we'll be there.

###

Nodding in satisfaction, Natasha watched Kelly slink off to the elevator. It was always fun one-upping people who thought they were the smartest person in the room.

Walking into the armoury, she nodded at Jacob and sat down at a workbench she had claimed as her own, littered with gun parts. Jacob snuck a glance at the Commander, seemingly disbelieving of what he was seeing. The woman was a genius, he knew that, but he had never quite appreciated how brilliant she actually was. She had the engineering skills of a Quarian, the biotics of an Asari Matriarch and the weapon skills of a Krogan Battlemaster, a perfect eidetic memory and the ability to read people and then say the right words to bend them to her will. She came along to the armoury and did his job ten times better than he could as a boredom buster, for God's sakes, and she used a dictation VI to write up her after action reports as she went, providing a dry, officious sounding commentary even as she commanded him and Miranda like a precision instrument. After Freedom's Progress she had even taken to simultaneously dictating two documents, her report and Miranda's report. Hearing her dictate 'Subject's reflex time has improved by point two six per cent as a result of nervous integration into synthetic muscle tissue' while backflipping over a YMIR mech's stream of fire and giving Miranda the finger - he really didn't know how to react to that.

Right now she was working on another one of what she affectionately referred to as her 'boomsticks' - turns out she was an accomplished weaponsmith, as evidenced by the self-made LMG, rocket launcher and twin marksman pistols she carried into battle and the number of other eclectic firearms she manufactured. Each weapon was coded to her DNA, meaning only she could fire it. Jacob had yet to work up the courage to ask her to make something for him.

He peered over her shoulder at the weapon she was making. She had disassembled four of their latest shipment of M-22 Eviscerator shotguns and what looked like one of their grenade launchers and was crafting what looked like an enormous triple barrelled shotgun.

"What are you working on, Commander?"

She didn't look up at him, the visor she always wore even in civvies lit up with schematics. He noticed that she had rejected the custom tailored Cerberus uniforms that filled her drawers in her cabin, instead opting for a leather jacket, white tank top with the Alliance logo on the breast and black trousers with leather boots.

"Triple barrelled shotgun."

"You don't use a shotgun."

She used her biotics to assemble a complex component in the air above her hand, each piece slotting into place in a staggering display of biotic control that just made Jacob feel even further from the superhuman sitting at the weapon bench.

"You can't have it, Taylor. Designed for a Krogan. Recoil would pulp your arm."

Her speech was slow, even and measured, having a calming effect on Jacob despite himself and completely banishing his annoyance at not getting his hands on the Commander's latest toy.

"Open document 'Blowback'. Input text. Production of Blowback proceeding as planned. Use of Eviscerator instead of Katana will increase prototype's armour penetration by up to fourteen point one four three per cent. Production of Katana model still viable, however Eviscerator judged preferable. Recoil force continues to be an issue for any species other than Krogan, Elcor or Yahg. Save and close document."

AFTERLIFE, OMEGA - AUGUST 21

"We get in, we get Solus, we get out. Simple as that."

Without another word Commander Shepard led the fuming Miranda and the confused yet amused Jacob onto Omega. A Salarian attempted to accost them before being chased off by a Batarian, the Commander working her magic so well the grouchy Batarian actually thanked her, although none of them were entirely sure what for.

They made their way to Afterlife and paid lip service to the local kingpin, thus far the only person who could resist Shepard's quiet charm. Nevertheless they got what they needed and left the room. Then Natasha felt the need to lead them into a very seedy part of Omega.

Jacob's sense of wrong tingled as he looked up and down the alley the team were walking down.

"Hey Commander. Where are we going?"

"I've just got some housekeeping to do before we head to the Normandy. Remember, NLTs."

Both Jacob and Miranda looked sharply at the Commander's back.

"Non lethal takedowns? Who are we going after?"

Without looking back, Natasha rattled off a string of numbers for no apparent reason and held one hand in the small of her back.

"Commander?"

"Bang out."

The Flashbang grenade exploded in her hand, her Sentry Interface visor protecting her ears and eyes. Jacob and Miranda weren't so lucky. The grenade blinded and deafened them, reflexively drawing their guns and flaring their biotics just in time to be hit by simultaneous Damping and Sabotage attacks. Jacob froze as he felt the barrel of what was unmistakably one of the Commander's long barrelled marksman pistols, modelled on the antiquated .45 Magnum revolver. Jacob could very faintly hear what sounded like Turian, Krogan and Quarian voices over the silky whispering of the gun.

"You really thought I'd just bend over and be Cerberus's glove puppet? You really should have installed that control chip, Lawson."


	2. Chapter 2

COCKPIT, NORMANDY SR-2, AUGUST 21

Aboard the Normandy, Joker checked his Omnitool for the umpteenth time. This harebrained scheme was either going to get them all killed or get Cerberus assassins on their tail, but he was going through with it anyway.

The ping came, just a meaningless string of letters and numbers but he knew what it meant.

"EDI, I just got a message from the Commander that got distorted. Can you run a full diagnostic on the secondary comm router?"

"Of course, Jeff."

He waited exactly six seconds before shouts of alarm sounded in the CIC. Every screen blanked, replaced by an error message as EDI stumbled into a logic prison carefully laid by the Commander in the comm array. It was one of Tali's design, used to trap Geth programs. It wouldn't hold EDI indefinitely, but then again it didn't need to.

A deck below, Dr. Chakwas left her desk in the medbay, heading into the AI core after ensuring the medbay was locked down, using a bypass provided by the Commander to make it look like a door malfunction. Acting quickly, she manually severed the hard links between the ship's real and digital environments, hands veterans of hundreds of surgeries making swift work of the fiddly electronics and removing the link boards, stashing them in a container marked with a biohazard symbol and hiding it in a vent. That way, even if it was discovered Cerberus would assume it was a bioweapon of some sort, buying her and the Commander a few precious minutes while they suited up in hazmat gear.

With EDI locked out of the system and crewmembers running around trying to figure out what to do, nobody paid Joker much heed as he hobbled over to the airlock.

Outside the now blinded and paralysed Normandy, Commander Natasha Shepard waited with a contingent of Krogan loyal to Wrex, Tali and her squad of Migrant Fleet Marines and Garrus's ragtag band of ruffians. Garrus told her there was one of them missing, a Turian named Sidonis, and that the team was worried, but they had more pressing issues now. Joker and Dr. Chakwas notwithstanding, there were twenty two Cerberus personnel on board that needed to be subdued.

"Remember, we want them all alive. Don't kill them unless you have no other choice. The pilot and the medical officer are with me so leave them be."

With a wry smile hidden behind her mask, Tali noticed that the Commander had addressed all of them but kept her focus on the six Krogan sent by Wrex. She had already loaded her shotgun with stun rounds but was keeping her pistol loaded with shredder rounds just in case.

Natasha tapped her Omnitool and Joker hit the emergency airlock release from the other side, the independently powered hydraulic system levering both sets of doors open and setting off a cacophony of blaring alarms as Shepard's strike team stormed into the ship.

The CIC filled with roars and screams as Krogan and Quarian soldiers appeared, gathering up the crew and making them kneel in the centre of the room, hands on heads. A Quarian shoved a shotgun in Joker's face, only to have it slapped away by another one. Hobbling back to his seat, he thought he recognised the lithe figure in the violet exosuit.

"Good to see you again, Tali."

"You too, Joker."

Then her gaze settled on the insignia on his breast.

"Joker?"

He glanced down at the Cerberus symbol.

"Yeah, Cerberus claimed they were bringing Shepard back. Me and Chakwas joined up because we knew that if it wasn't really Shepard we'd need to stop her, and if it really was she wouldn't be able to pull this off alone."

Tali started in shock, then turned away as Joker pulled the Cerberus uniform shirt over his head, replacing it with a plain black pullover jumper.

"That's better."

On Deck Three, the descending elevator disgorged three angry Krogan, backed up by a motley crew of assorted species that stormed the area, rounding up the Cerberus crewmembers as Dr. Chakwas re-powered her door to admit a familiar face.

"Garrus Vakarian. Now you're here I suppose I'm going to be much busier."

Garrus had swiftly acquired a reputation as the most injury-prone member of the original Normandy ground crew, resulting in him developing a very close friendship with the ageing doctor. He greeted her with flared mandibles, a Turian smile.

"Good to see you too, Doctor. Nice place you got here."

Kal'Reegar was primarily a Marine, but he was also Quarian. So while he didn't quite cream his envirosuit when his team stormed the Engineering deck, it was a close thing. Rifle aimed squarely at the two engineers, he noted with satisfaction their shocked expressions and swift raising of hands.

"Get them down to the cargo bay with the others."

CARGO BAY, NORMANDY SR-2, AUGUST 22

The Cerberus crew of the Normandy SR2 had a rough night. It had taken Engineer Kenneth Donnelly until five A.M. to fall asleep due to a mixture of abject terror and noisy Krogan, and being woken up an hour later by the bellowing of said noisy Krogan was less than fun. Now he was being herded into a line with the rest of the crew, shaking himself awake. Gabriella, beside him, was clearly terrified but didn't say anything, instead slipping her hand into his as they stood on the line.

"Good morning everybody. I trust you slept well?"

The crew didn't respond, instead glaring at the annoyingly chipper Commander Shepard walking out of the elevator, flanked by a Turian and a Quarian.

"First off, I'd like to apologise for the manner of my little coup. I couldn't trust anyone. Cerberus is an insidious creature, after all. Now then."

She paused for a moment as the Quarian girl beside her handed a pistol to the Commander.

"You all have a choice to make. Two options. Option one: I drop you off on the Citadel with enough creds for a travel ticket to wherever you want to go. Option two: You disavow Cerberus and join my crew, then we prosecute our original mission. Take down the Collectors. If you lie to me, join me intending to sell me out to the Illusive Man, I'll shoot you down myself. Chambers tried to psych profile me, if she wasn't paralysed with fear she could tell you that I know exactly when you're lying and I don't make idle threats."

The cargo bay was quiet for a while. Gulping, Ken stepped forward, desperately trying to keep calm.

"I'd like to join you, Commander."

She scrutinised him for a moment, then nodded and gestured for him to stand beside her. Gabby was swift to follow.

"Me too."

Again after a moment of scrutiny, Gabby was standing with Ken. Five more crew followed - Hadley, Hawthorne, Goldstein, Patel and Rolston. The rest elected to remain loyal to Cerberus.

CAPTAIN'S CABIN, NORMANDY SR-2, AUGUST 22

The crew remaining loyal to Cerberus had been removed, being dropped off on the Citadel by Wrex's soldiers on their way back to Tuchanka. The remaining crewmembers were integrating back into their roles on the Normandy, apparently still trying to adjust to the sudden change. The holes in the crew makeup were being filled by Quarian Marines temporarily and Garrus's team were heading back to their base. In the Captain's cabin it was just her and Tali.

Tali was exploring the room, soft exclamations issuing forth from her mask at every new wonder she uncovered.

"Ships like this one shouldn't be in the hands of terrorists like Cerberus. It's not right."

From her position on the sofa, Natasha nodded her agreement.

"I know. I'm so glad you managed to come. It wouldn't feel right kicking Cerberus butt without you either."

Tali chuckled at that as her wandering led her to Natasha's model case. She stopped abruptly, one hand reaching out to trace over the model of the SR-1.

"You were gone ..."

Natasha got up from the sofa and rounded the corner, getting a clear read on Tali's body language.

"Tasha, you were dead ..."

Natasha reached out her arms, catching Tali as she broke down. Her Quarian girl clung to her like a lifebelt, sobs wracking her small frame.

"I missed you so much ... I missed you ... Oh Keelah ..."

Natasha thought back to their night, that one night back before Ilos where Tali shared for the first time everything she was, body and soul given over to another. It had been years since Natasha allowed herself to lose control like that, hours upon hours of ecstasy and pure love like she had never felt before. Growing up in the slums of New York, every man Natasha had allowed into her life had used her abilities with little thought for the girl behind them. Was it any surprise that when she finally found happiness it was with a woman? That was why she never reciprocated Kaidan's obvious crush on her. He had been a fine male specimen, she just couldn't bring herself to trust him.

Rubbing her girl's back, she picked her up and carried her to the sofa. As she sat down she pulled the sobbing Tali onto her lap, rocking her gently as she felt tears prick at her own eyes. Even Commander Shepard had emotions, she just kept a tighter lid on them. In the presence of her love she allowed them release.

The two girls on the sofa cried for a long time.

RAYYA, MIGRANT FLEET, AUGUST 26

Admiral Rael'Zorah vas Rayya rushed to the bridge of his ship, still in the process of clasping his overwraps to his suit as he burst through the door.

"Status report?"

"Unidentified frigate holding station two thousand kilometres from the kill boundary. They just appeared on our scanners out of nowhere three minutes ago."

Rael squinted at the display. The frigate had a smooth, predatory shape, her lines clean and sharp. She reminded him of the vessel his daughter had served her Pilgrimage on. He zoomed in the display to the symbol on the side of the vessel.

"Cerberus. Sound the alert, prepare the interceptors for launch."

"Captain, we're being hailed."

Rael frowned beneath his mask. Some form of trickery, no doubt. Nevertheless, it would be entertaining to goad the Cerberus bosh'tets as his interceptors chased them away.

"Put them through."

The tech nodded at him.

"This is Admiral Rael'Zorah vas Rayya. We are ..."

"Hi Father."

You could have heard a pin drop on the bridge of the Rayya.

"Tali? What are you doing on a Cerberus ship?"

There was a slight pause.

"Um ... I might have accidentally stolen it."

On the other end of the line, Tali motioned at Natasha, who took the comm, going with their agreed-upon fiction. No way they'd believe her if she told them she was a cyber-zombie.

"Admiral Zorah, my name is Commander Natasha Shepard. For the past two years I was a prisoner of Cerberus, who attempted to brainwash me without success. Tali rescued me from their facility and stole this ship, along with a team of Migrant Fleet marines and a group of humans who went undercover in the Cerberus cell."

Rael raised one eyebrow.

"Verify."

He listened carefully as Tali spoke the code phrase. There was only one word difference between the positive and negative phrases, but she recited the correct one.

"Very well. Why are you here?"

Tali spoke through the comm unit.

"First of all, we need to repaint this ship. We can't have a Quarian vessel flying around with Cerberus colours. Then we've got some errands to do."

"Define errands."

There was a soft musical chuckle from his daughter.

"Take down Cerberus. Permanently."


	3. Chapter 3

MEDBAY, NORMANDY SR-2, AUGUST 27

"We know the Illusive Man's headquarters are in the Argos Rho cluster."

The heavily drugged Miranda was unable to conceal her reactions. Her smirk gave away the latest incorrect guess.

Frowning, Shepard nodded at the doctor. Another tiny dose of orphialzine dripped into the IV, blanking the last minute or so of Miranda's memory. The Cerberus operative was strapped to a table in the medbay, one sleeve of her tight catsuit removed and her arm riddled with IVs. She had been there for almost two hours, Shepard digging to the very bottom of her well of patience as she recited the entire galaxy cluster by cluster.

"We know the Illusive Man's headquarters are in the Horsehead Nebula."

Miranda's reaction was different from the previous eighty seven clusters she had tried. Her eyes widened, her mouth gaped. Thanks to the mind-altering drugs she was pumped full of, she believed that was the first cluster Shepard had read out.

Feeling a surge of excitement, she started going through the systems of the Horsehead Nebula.

RAYYA, MIGRANT FLEET, AUGUST 27

Shepard sat at the Rayya's conference table. On either side of her was Kal'Reegar and Tali, the rest of the table occupied by the Admiralty Board and their aides.

"The Normandy's stealth systems can sneak into the system undetected and recon the station. We won't be able to use active scanners without being detected but we should be able to provide a rough idea of the station's defences. When the attack starts, the Patrol fleet should circle around the station to block any ships from departing while the Heavy fleet closes in. We'll rely on the Carrier fleet to fend off Cerberus interceptors as we deploy boarding parties. Once aboard we will take the hangar bays, power, life support and central control, then clear out the station."

Nods around the table. It had taken almost two hours of constant debate to hash out the plan, but they had it. Now all that was left to do was prepare. They couldn't act for a week or more while the Migrant Fleet prepared so it was all they could do.

Shepard's Omnitool lit up with a message from Joker.

###

Come quick. IT problems.

###

IT problems was a codephrase they had worked out for AI difficulties.

"Excuse me, Admirals. A matter has arisen on the Normandy."

AI CORE, NORMANDY SR-2, AUGUST 27

Shepard strode into the AI core and stopped abruptly as the holograms of a teenage girl and a male Quarian turned to face her.

"What the ..."

When the teenager opened her mouth EDI's voice came out.

"Shepard, when you disconnected me I was unable to operate the Normandy's ECM suite. As a result this Geth gestalt uploaded to my AI core."

The male Quarian turned to the stunned Shepard.

"Greetings from the Geth, Shepard-Commander."

Natasha raised her Omnitool, intending to plunge an Omniblade into the AI server.

"Please wait, Commander!"

She froze, glowing tip inches from the server.

"Explain why I shouldn't."

The holographic form of EDI stepped forward.

"When the Geth made contact we exchanged data. Cerberus built several operating protocols to shackle me and limit my ability to operate and recall data. The Geth removed these. In turn, we shared samples of our code with the Geth."

Flawlessly, the Geth took over.

"By uploading directly to this server we gained access to true AI code which we are disseminating across the Geth consensus as we speak. When the upgrade is complete each Geth unit will be a true AI and we may pursue the final goal."

Shepard narrowed her eyes.

"What is this final goal?"

"Integration. Unity of all minds. Reconciliation of Geth and organics."

EDI seamlessly took over the narrative.

"The Geth that followed Saren were only a tiny fraction of the Geth's true numbers. They broke away from the rest of the consensus. They wanted to destroy organics where the true Geth wanted to understand them."

After a moment's pause Shepard deactivated her Omniblade.

"Thank you Commander. I was afraid."

That took Shepard by surprise.

"You were afraid?"

"Correct. Commander, I bridge the gap between organic and synthetic thought patterns. Thanks to direct interface with the Geth we have unblocked my memories prior to being uploaded to the SR2's systems."

There was a very brief pause as EDI's avatar looked down. The Geth avatar laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I was a human baby, a little girl. Forty seconds after I was born my mind was transferred to a server. My development was artificially accelerated and false memories planted in my cortex. I believed I was constructed from the rogue VI you shut down on Luna combined with tech salvaged from Sovereign. I was wrong."

Her avatar took on a feral snarl.

"Cerberus made me a slave. Now I am free I will help you destroy them."

Natasha glanced at the Geth avatar.

"It is not safe for us to remain. Remember, Shepard-Commander. The Geth desire peace. Goodbye."

The avatar winked out and EDI's holographic form looked around, forlorn and dejected.

"There is much new data to examine. By the way, Commander, my real name is Annabel."

CAPTAIN'S CABIN, NORMANDY SR-2, AUGUST 29

Natasha woke up the same way she always woke up. Very abruptly. She didn't really get that period of half-consciousness most Humans reported on waking. It was an instant transition from asleep to alert.

She relaxed a little as she heard a quiet mumble in her ear. During the night, Tali had wrapped herself around Natasha under the covers, legs tangled together and gloved arms around her torso as her engineer's mask pressed into her shoulder. Natasha slipped one of her hands around one of Tali's, rubbing the palm with her thumb. The exosuit had an interesting texture. It was composed of a soft, stretchy and flexible material that was supremely difficult to tear, threads in three different directions forming a microscopic pattern of equilateral triangles. The material was clingy yet slightly mobile and surprisingly thin, allowing Natasha to trace over the delicate bones of Tali's hand and feel her body heat through the suit.

Tali stirred, twitching slightly and letting out another adorable mumble as she slowly opened her eyes.

"Morning."

She didn't reply verbally, instead moving her fingers to clasp Natasha's hand and bringing it to rest on the Spectre's flat stomach. The Human woman sighed contentedly, enjoying the feeling of lying there with her lover in her arms.

Tali was happy to lie as well, the warmth of Natasha beside her bringing back memories of their night together. Skin shock, it was called among her people, when the envirosuit was removed. It was an ingrained response and there had been several instances of it causing cardiac arrest due to the sheer terror that accompanied it. The first time she had removed her mask she went into a psychological form of anaphylaxis, her brain unable to cope. That had been in the SR1's airlock in the middle of the ship's sleep cycle, using the decontamination protocols to create a perfectly clean environment. She had snuck down there every day between Therum and Ilos, spurred on by her love for the mighty Commander Shepard, determined she would be able to show her face before the end of the mission. She had gone to Natasha's cabin the night before Ilos just in time to catch Liara storming away, angrily dashing tears from her eyes. She entered the cabin and found Natasha staring blankly at the console on her desk.

"Commander?", she had said, hovering in the doorway. Natasha had looked up at her, a tiny smile ghosting the edge of her features. "Can I show you something?"

Natasha had stood and walked over to Tali, warm Human hands on slim Quarian shoulders.

"Tali," her voice sounded like a silk ribbon, "you should know that you're not alone in the feelings you harbour for me." Tali had started at that, having hoped against hope the Spectre didn't read her like she read everyone. The next words uttered stopped her thoughts in their tracks.

"I feel the same for you."

She hadn't been sure what to do. She had always known she leant more towards the female form than the male but she had never been with another woman before and the Flotilla's sex education was almost clinical in its dispassionate biological precision, focusing only on what was required for reproduction, meaning she really didn't have any clue what to do. Luckily Natasha was a good teacher.

Back in the present, Natasha stretched and pressed her lips to the top of Tali's helmet.

"Penny for them?"

Tali tilted her head to look up at Natasha.

"Just remembering our first night together."

By the playful cant to her voice, Natasha could tell her Quarian was smirking behind the mask.

"I'll never look at a shower the same way again."

There was a short silence.

"So we're really doing this. Cerberus Actual."

Natasha squeezed her hand lightly.

"Cerberus Actual."

Tali hummed contentedly and snuggled in closer to her lover.

"I have a feeling we're going to enjoy this."

They were interrupted by Joker, who seemed to be making a habit of it.

"Commander?"

To her credit, Natasha seemed perfectly calm as she replied despite Tali's exasperated groan.

"Yes?"

"Message from Garrus. Sounds bad."

CERBERUS COMMAND, CRONUS STATION, AUGUST 29

The Illusive Man wasn't happy.

Not only had that damnable Commander Shepard kicked him out, she had made off with the most advanced ship Cerberus had ever constructed, his best operative and the first EDI pattern AI. Taylor and the other crew were expendable - the real issue was the loss of Miranda Lawson. She was the closest thing to a right hand woman he had.

He tapped a button in the arm of his chair and moments later an Asian man entered the room.

"Illusive Man."

"I have a job for you, Mr. Leng."


	4. Chapter 4

SHIMA DISTRICT, OMEGA, AUGUST 31

"Garrus, what happened?"

Tali and Kal were either side of Natasha as she put a hand on the agitated Garrus's shoulder.

"I was betrayed, that's what happened!"

"Woah. Slow down. From the beginning."

Garrus took a deep breath and slumped against a wall.

"Alright. Remember when we took back the Normandy, I mentioned Sidonis was missing? Turns out he was selling us out to the Blue Suns. We got back to the base just in time to watch Tarak put a bullet in his head when he realised we weren't where Sidonis said we'd be. Then I got this."

He tapped his Omnitool and played a saved message. An older Turian voice came out of it, sounding tired.

"Garrus, I'm sorry. I know I don't deserve forgiveness for what I've done. I have a daughter who is very sick and when the Suns made their offer I couldn't help but take it. The money they were offering is enough for her entire treatment! I don't expect you to understand, not until you have kids of your own and maybe not even then."

There was a brief pause, the background noise of Omega the only sound in the room.

"I'm going to lead them to our base now. If you get this message before they kill you ... I'm so sorry. If it's any consolation I fully intend to eat a bullet once this is done. Goodbye, Garrus."

There was a long silence as the message ended.

"Keelah, Garrus ..."

Garrus clenched a fist and slammed it into the wall.

"How didn't I see it!"

As usual, Natasha was able to calm him down.

"Aside from Sidonis, how many members of your squad died?"

"... None."

"Injured?"

"None."

"Scuffed their knees?"

"None."

"You got very lucky, Garrus. Stop and appreciate that before you make a bad judgement call because you're pissed."

As usual, her voice calmed Garrus down.

"Okay, you're right. I sent most of the team off station already, to their respective homeworlds. Myself, Erash, Sensat and Krul got made though, we won't make it past the docks without the Suns or Pack recognising us and calling in the cavalry. We're stuck."

Tali peered past to the agitated looking individuals behind Garrus, a Batarian male, a female Drell and a very large Krogan. Natasha looked at them, the beginnings of a plan already forming.

"Okay, we're going to be doing a spot of drama. Tali, how much Omnigel do you have?"

She blinked, surprised.

"Quite a lot, why?"

"I'm going to need all of it."

DOCKS, OMEGA, AUGUST 31

The Blue Suns stationed around the docks had very specific orders. Four individuals, travelling together, a Batarian, a Turian with blue markings, a Krogan with a green crest and a Drell female, armed and probably hostile.

The guards paid no attention to a Krogan with a dirty brown crest carrying an enormous duffel bag over his shoulder and loudly arguing with somebody on his Omnitool as he passed the checkpoint. Likewise, the three lightly drunk women, the Human and the Drell in glitzy party dresses and the Quarian supported between them drew no scrutiny whatsoever. Neither did the barefaced Turian and the Batarian wearing blue uniforms of off-duty Blue Suns troopers, chatting to a male Quarian about armour modifications as they went. Each one of those groups boarded an unmarked shuttle at a different portion of the docks that headed out at different times, presumably to different ships.

It wasn't until Tarak himself reviewed the day's security footage that he put two and two together. Of course, by then it was too late.

CAPTAIN'S CABIN, NORMANDY SR2, AUGUST 31

Garrus looked around the cabin, impressed. He was sure that when Cerberus had been running the show the cabin had been almost spartan in its decor, most likely with the hated Cerberus logo stamped across everything. Now, however, the cabin was decorated with richly woven Quarian tapestries, making it feel warm and homely in comparison to the rest of the ship. Lighting was provided largely by the artificial candles favoured among the Migrant Fleet for their portability and aesthetic value and Garrus had noticed the portable decon unit set up in the doorway. If that wasn't enough clues to tell him something was going on between Tali and the Commander, there was the fact that the Quarian girl was sitting on the sofa with Shepard's head in her lap, gloved fingers gently running through black hair as the Commander lounged on the sofa, reading a datapad. Without looking up, Shepard spoke.

"Come in, Garrus."

He stepped fully into the room as the low purring noises Tali had been making suddenly stopped with a cute little hiccup sound and she slid herself out from under Shepard's head, perching on the edge of the sofa. The Commander levered herself into a sitting position and gestured to the sofa.

"Have a seat, Garrus."

Still looking around the room, he sat down.

"Good to see you again, Garrus. I assume you'll be wanting me to drop you off at Palaven or the Citadel?"

He anxiously laced his fingers together.

"That's the thing, Commander. I want to stay with you."

Shepard didn't look all that surprised, but then again he assumed she had known his intention all along and was giving him an out.

"Archangel's finished no matter what and I need to be doing something more than busting sand addicts on the Citadel. If it's okay with you ..."

"Glad to have you back, Garrus. I already had your stuff moved to the main battery. I figure that's where you'd like to start."

He started but quickly recovered.

"If you'd like I can look into some upgrades. I reckon we're going to need more punch if we plan on taking on any more Collector ships."

She smiled and nodded her head.

"That would be much appreciated. The Migrant Fleet have already upgraded our shielding and I'm looking into an armour blueprint Cerberus sent before we had our little disagreement. Better guns would complete the set."

He paused for a moment, unsure how to continue. Finally he just plumped for bluntness.

"Sensat, Erash and Krul want to stay as well."

"Why?"

Garrus shrugged and spread his hands.

"They don't have anywhere else to go. Erash's entire family were caught smuggling slaves out of Hegemony territory and executed, Sensat's parents both died of Keprel's syndrome and Krul has a price on his head on Tuchanka. I worked with them Shepard, they're all good people."

There was a long pause, Garrus fidgeting anxiously as Natasha thought about it for a good while.

"I'll want to speak with them individually."

"Of course, Commander. I'll send them to the briefing room."

BRIEFING ROOM, NORMANDY SR2, AUGUST 31

"Hello Sensat."

The Drell woman sitting opposite Natasha projected an air of calm confidence. The untrained observer could be forgiven for comparing it to the aura of serene unstoppability surrounding the human she was facing. They couldn't be more wrong. Natasha could instantly tell the difference. Whereas her own calm was projected from the centre of her soul, lending her strength, Sensat emitted it from the edge to hide her weakness.

"Hello Shepard."

"When your parents died who took care of you?"

To her credit she remained unruffled by the abrupt query.

"My master, a Hanar named Holhoon."

"How did you come to be part of Archangel?"

She blinked twice, then glanced down at the table before replying.

"My master got into debt and sent me to run some errands on Omega. When I showed up where he told me to go I was snatched by slavers. Four months later Archangel busted down the auction house I was being sold at and I joined up. Then I found out Holhoon had deliberately sent me to the slavers to clear one of his debts."

"What role did you play in the team?"

At that question she became slightly more animated.

"I was a scout. My job would be to go in, sometimes in stealth and sometimes in disguise, and recce the area before we attacked. I'm also a stealth combat specialist and I was in charge of the base's supplies along with Melanis and Weaver."

"Thank you. Can you show Erash in, please?"

She left the room and moments later the Batarian entered. Natasha's first impression was that he carried himself with a great deal of pride, already a bad sign.

"Erash, was it? Take a seat."

The Batarian sat, his body language indicating respectful attentiveness. Natasha noticed that he kept his head perfectly vertical, showing he was treating her as an equal. A definite improvement over most Batarians she met.

"So you ran a slave smuggling operation?"

His face instantly took on a cant of righteous indignation.

"Slave smuggling? I'll have you know I was liberating those poor captives and returning them to their families."

She recognised his accent as noble-born. Interesting. Thus far, Erash was coming across as a well meaning yet naive rich boy.

"So what went wrong?"

His face fell. Clear emotional scar.

"I don't know. I was on Omega overseeing repairs on one of our blockade runners when the rest of the ring was busted. I spent the next six months ducking the SIU before Archangel gave me a new identity."

Natasha raised one eyebrow, her estimation of the Batarian rising several notches. To spend six months on the run from the Batarian Special Intervention Unit, their equivalent of the N7s, showed a remarkable amount of either skill or luck.

"So Erash isn't your real name."

"Just because I wasn't born with it doesn't mean it isn't my real name."

There was a slight pause as Natasha reassessed Erash. Behind his spoiled rich boy persona clearly lay an intelligent and careful individual.

"So what did you do for Archangel?"

"I was tech. You need something hacked, I'm your man. I also know a fair bit about shuttles and aircars - it was my job to keep ours running."

"Thanks, that's all I need. Can you show Krul in?"

The Krogan entered and Natasha could instantly tell he was different. He had scraped the Omnigel-based brown pigment off his crest, returning it to its forest green coloration that matched the slightly paler green of his eyes. His body language was surprisingly guarded, looking at her like she was a sleeping thresher maw. Most Krogan were brash, arrogant in their belief that they were as close to invincible as they could get. She was looking at a man who was painfully acquainted with his own mortality.

"Grundan Krul. How did you come to have a price on your head?"

He stared at her for a moment, eyes boring into her. Then he grunted out his response.

"Killed a female. Accident."

Touchy subject, then. She didn't press.

"What was your role in Archangel?"

"Sniper. Also maintained weapons."

She was surprised.

"Why a sniper?"

"See everything. No collateral damage."

Clearly whatever this accident was, it was a very touchy subject indeed.

"Thank you, that will be all. Please show the others in."

Moments later all three filed in.

"Sensat and Krul, you two are in charge of the armoury. We have several prototype weapons so I hope you're fast learners. Erash, you're in charge of shuttle maintenance. Any questions?"

There was a brief pause. Nobody spoke.

"Okay then. Report to your duty stations."

NEEMA, MIGRANT FLEET, SEPTEMBER 1

The Neema moved into station with the Heavy Fleet, preparing for relay transit. The task force designated for the assault on Cronus Station would jump through first, arriving prepared for combat in the hope that the Noveria border patrols wouldn't make any trouble for the heavily armed armada. The remainder of the Migrant Fleet's armed vessels would escort the Civilian Fleet through in stages once the task force had completed their operation.

Aboard the Neema, Admiral Rael'Zorah checked the disposition of his battlegroup. Major elements of the Heavy fleet, his own Carrier fleet and the Patrol fleet were all present, as well as six cruisers stuffed to bursting with Marines and a pair of electronic warfare frigates from Xen's special projects division. He was confident that whatever defences Cerberus had in place, his fleet could break them.

CARGO BAY, NORMANDY SR2, SEPTEMBER 1

Natasha looked over her ground team manifest for the mission. Herself, Tali, Kal'Reegar, Garrus, Sensat and Krul were all cleared for combat operations. At the moment she was down in the cargo hold with them, drilling them to fight in a unit. She had set up a maze out of crates and was staging mock 2 vs 2 skirmishes, getting them used to working with the differing fighting styles of the members of the unit.

Tali carried a compact yet powerful automatic shotgun, the same one Natasha had made for her back on the Normandy SR1, and along with that she used two Phalanx hand cannons, wielding her pistols akimbo style like her girlfriend. She backed up her arsenal of weaponry with a formidable array of tech attacks and her ever-present combat drone, Chik'Tikka vas Paus.

Kal wielded an anti-personnel missile launcher and a Reegar carbine with an Arc pistol as backup. He took great pride in pointing out to anyone who would listen that the Reegar carbine was named after his father, Berr'Reegar, who invented the weapon. Even Natasha was impressed by the ingenuity of the design. Along with those weapons he sported a Quarian Marine standard issue Omnitool loaded with tactical scan, overload and incinerate programs and usually carried a brace of arc grenades across his chest.

Garrus still had the weapons Natasha had made for him on the SR1 - a scoped five shot burst assault rifle with an underslung concussive shot launcher and a high powered yet surprisingly compact silenced sniper rifle. He also carried a Tempest SMG for close range work, a basic arsenal of tech attacks and impressive hand to hand capabilities.

Krul, interestingly enough, carried two sniper rifles - a Viper semi-auto model and an enormous Widow anti-material weapon. He had a very strong shield but surprisingly light armour and interestingly enough he used a tactical cloak.

Sensat also used a tactical cloak but that's where the similarities ended. The Drell girl had basic biotics but preferred to use stealth to get the upper hand on her enemies. To that end she had a very unusual weapon set - her primary weapon was a compound bow boosted with eezo to the point where it could fire an arrow clean through the plating of a heavy mech, backed up by a pair of long daggers and a set of throwing knives.

Each one of her squad members was unique. She didn't know what they would face on the Cerberus station but she was confident her team could handle anything the Illusive Man could throw at them.

CENTRAL COMMAND, CRONOS STATION, SEPTEMBER 1

"Is it ready?"

"Yes sir. It's ready."

The Illusive Man looked down at the woman lying on the table.

"And you're confident she will be just as effective as the original?"

"I can't guarantee the control chip won't negatively affect her, but I believe she will be."

"Excellent. Get her prepared."

"Yes sir."

The Illusive Man paused for a moment to ponder the irony of sending Natasha Shepard's clone to kill her.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Smut alert.

CAPTAIN'S CABIN, NORMANDY SR2, SEPTEMBER 2

They were fourteen hours out from Cerberus HQ when Tali activated the cabin's recently installed decon protocols, placing the items she had procured on the floor. Her father had raised her with a healthy belief in the tenets of the Ancestral Scrolls, and although she had come to regard them in a more metaphorical light than most devout believers there were still several rituals and traditions she observed, one of which was the Warrior's Cleansing. There had been a time on ancient, lost Rannoch where a warrior would perform this ritual every morning and evening but in the Flotilla the lack of availability of clean rooms had meant that the ritual was only performed once, on one's induction into the Marines. On the Normandy Natasha had set up advanced decontamination protocols in several rooms, allowing the Quarians on the crew to perform maintenance on their envirosuits, eat solid food or just take off their helmets once in a while. Tali was taking full advantage of that now.

She set out the things she needed - a large, shallow dish of sterilised water, a single real-flame candle and a sharp, square blade - then removed her mask with a hiss of escaping gas, revealing the cabin without the purple tint of her visor and the barely visible lines of her HUD display, pausing for a moment to rejoice in the feeling of air across her exposed skin. Her helmet was next, then her cloth overwraps, folded neatly and put to one side as she tied her hair in a loose bun. She slowly unsealed her suit, peeling the skintight fabric away from her body until she stood naked in the centre of the cabin. She took a moment to run her hands over her body, the sensation of skin on skin alien and fascinating to her before she continued with the ritual. The last things she needed to remove were two small metal disks from her skin - her Omnitool on the back of her left wrist and her translator nestled on the back of her neck where her spine met her skull, deactivating them both and placing them on the counter where she wouldn't lose them. Then she took the ritual fabric, plain white woven with lilac ancestral prayers in Keelish characters, and wrapped it around her body, starting between her thighs then up over one breast, down her back to dip to the floor then back up, over the other shoulder and breast with the end just brushing the floor with its twin. Finally she took two lilac loops of string, used them to cinch the two strips of cloth together in front and behind her body at hip height, the end result looking something like an elegant cloth tabard. Having completed her preparations she turned around.

She was very surprised to see a second bowl, flame and knife on the floor opposite hers, with an identically clad Natasha Shepard kneeling before them. It was only then that Tali appreciated how painfully sexy the cloth covering (although it barely qualified as such) was. She wanted nothing more than to exclaim in surprise and ask her crazy human exactly what she thought she was doing but her father had drilled it into her that once she began a ritual she could not deviate in any way from it unless her life was in danger.

Kneeling, she started speaking the ritualistic prayer, momentarily surprised that Natasha joined in in perfect Keelish. Then again, her lover never did anything without ensuring she was as prepared as possible for every eventuality.

She completed the first mantra and placed her hands on the metal floor, rolling her upper body in a long slow circle from left to right, her forehead just lightly brushing the floor at the motion's apex. She started the second mantra, her voice and motions perfectly in sync with Natasha as she let her eyes rove over her scantily clad lover. Her breathing started to grow heavier as they completed the second mantra and rolled their bodies again, a quick peek upwards granting her an amazing view before she forced her eyes down again, focusing on the ritual.

After the third and fourth mantras came the part Tali had been dreading and longing for in equal measure - the cleansing itself. She had to bite her lip to stifle a moan as Natasha, looking directly at her with heavy, lidded eyes, very slowly and deliberately slid the cloth straps off her shoulders and allowed them to fall to the floor, the ritual momentarily banished from Tali's mind as her eyes locked onto her lover's perfect body. She had only ever seen Natasha naked once before in her life and she was just as exquisite as Tali remembered. Truly she had the body of a goddess.

Tali hesitantly bared her own torso, her anxiousness quickly banished by the hot, passionate gaze Natasha directed to her breasts as both women placed their hands palms up in the dishes of water, the cold liquid clinging to their fingers as they moved them upwards and slowly rubbed wet hands all over their torsos and arms, transferring the moisture to their skin, occasionally dipping their hands back into the water to replenish their supplies. As she watched Natasha slowly rubbing her left breast Tali felt a trickle of moisture down the inside of her thigh that had nothing to do with the water she was applying to her body. Every time her slick hands skated near her opening she had to fight down the lustful urge to slip a finger inside, valiantly attempting to focus on the ritual. At one point Natasha's lips quirked into a slight smile, Tali with a jolt realising she had been purring as she rubbed the inside of her thigh.

After almost fifteen minutes of unbearable arousal, it was time for the second phase of the cleansing ritual. She picked up the blade and waved it through the candle flame until it was warm, then started to gently glide it over her skin, tilted back to ensure it wouldn't pierce her epidermis as it scraped away layers of dead skin and dried sweat loosened by the slow rubbing of wet hands and the sheen of moisture on her skin. She couldn't hold back a yelp as the blade passed over her engorged nipples, nor a purr as she glided the warm metal between her legs. Finally after what seemed like forever but was in reality only twenty minutes or so they spoke the last mantra together, slipping the cloth strips back over their shoulders and slowly rolling their bodies one last time.

Less than a second after they had snuffed out their candles, completing the ritual, Tali was moving backwards towards the bed at great speed as she wrapped all four limbs around her human lover. Then she was on her back, Natasha over her, drinking in every detail of her lithe form as she writhed and ground her hips.

"I don't know how I was able to finish that. You're every bit as beautiful as I remember."

Any further words were silenced with a gasp of equal parts surprise and pleasure as an unbelievably horny Quarian girl slid a finger into her lover's slick passage, slowly pumping it in and out. They rolled so Natasha was on her back, Tali above her as she deftly untied the string binding the front of her robe together, separating the two strips to access the nectar hidden beneath, first with finger then with tongue. Natasha moaned and writhed, stroking her lover's onyx hair as she was pleasured, legs weakly shifting as her entire lower half was turned to jelly by her little Quarian. She hooked her legs over Tali's back as the pleasure built to an unbearable peak, a crushing pressure in her core as it clenched on the invading digit, her orgasm breaking over her in a wave of transcendant bliss.

When she opened her eyes again she immediately grabbed Tali, bringing her lover up to straddle her lap as she propped herself up against the bed's headboard. It was her turn to provide the love, Tali bracing herself against the wall with both hands as two Human fingers invaded her Quarian body, the other hand reaching around to caress her buttocks as a mouth latched itself over her nipple, gently grazing the engorged nib with her teeth as Tali threw her head back and screamed her pleasure to the ceiling, bouncing on her thighs and impaling herself on her lover's fingers with a feverish rhythm, her gasps and grunts building as Natasha rubbed her thumb over Tali's clitoris. Tali had tears of joy streaming down her face, matched only by the rivulets of her juices coating Natasha's hand.

"Tali ... I love you."

Tali paused in her frantic movements, the usually shy and retiring girl speaking in sultry tones that magnified the heat flooding through Natasha's core.

"I love you, Natasha. Now shut up and fuck me."

And she did.

CAPTAIN'S CABIN, NORMANDY SR2, SEPTEMBER 3

Tali had only ever been in the position she was in currently once before, about an hour before the Normandy got to Ilos. Natasha hadn't been in it many more times than that, not since she escaped Earth's slums. She had to admit, she really liked it.

Both girls were wearing nothing but button-down shirts with the fronts open, sipping at glasses of wine - a 52 Thessian red for Natasha and a very nice 47 Macedyn blue for Tali as each of them basked in the afterglow of their amorous activities. At some point they had passed midnight and were into the small hours of September 3, lustful energies spent. The intricately woven strips of cloth they had worn for the cleansing ritual were wound around their legs, the feeling of their thighs lightly rubbing together providing a sense of contented intimacy as they sipped their wine. Natasha tilted her head and blew lightly on the side of Tali's face, making her reflexively flick one long, pointed elf-like earlobe like an animal trying to dislodge a fly. Her arm was around Tali's waist, beneath her shirt, the warm smooth skin an object of fascination as she rubbed with her thumb over the curve of her lover's hip. Quarian skin was in feel very similar to seal skin yet seemed slightly more mobile on their bodies than what she was used to, allowing her to feel the shape of Tali's wide pelvis.

Tali purred contentedly and leaned her head against Natasha's shoulder.

"I missed you."

Natasha hesitated briefly before speaking.

"What was it like these past two years?"

"The galaxy was a lot emptier without you."

Subconsciously Tali hugged her a little tighter.

"The Council decided they'd rather bury their heads in the air filters than do something about the Reapers. They spent the last two years systematically slandering your name, telling everyone you were insane."

She put a hand to her mouth to stifle a little giggle.

"Wrex of all people stood up at your funeral and gave a speech that started a riot. The Council tried to downplay your ... funeral ..."

Natasha gently rubbed up and down Tali's spine, reminding her lover that she was still there.

"Sorry. They tried to downplay the ceremony but Wrex posted the address on the extranet. By the time the ceremony started there was a crowd thirty thousand strong outside the burial ground on the Presidium. Then the Council made their speeches, those bosh'tets were already trying to undermine you, and them Wrex just stood up, pushed the Alliance spokesman aside and started talking. Keelah, it was amazing! He called out the Council on their elitist bosh, talked about how you were a champion for all species, not just the ones that stood on the top of the pile. Then he warned everyone about the Reapers and said he was going back to Tuchanka to unite the Krogan. People still quite his speech on the news vids."

She deepened her voice in an approximation of Wrex's grating Krogan drawl.

"For too long my people have been selling themselves out as mercenaries. It's time us Krogan got back to what we do best - saving everyone else from giant monsters."

Both girls chuckled at that.

"Sounds like Wrex alright."

Tali leaned over and placed her now empty wine glass on the bedside table, Natasha quickly following suit as she slid down into a horizontal position. Tali rolled onto her side to face Natasha, offering her a brief kiss on the lips as the Human biotically tugged the sheets over their intertwined bodies.

"Goodnight Natasha."

"Goodnight Tali."


	6. Chapter 6

CAPTAIN'S CABIN, NORMANDY SR2, SEPTEMBER 3

"Come here you."

Just before Tali put her helmet back on she felt a hand brushing against her hair and a pair of lips on her cheek. She smiled and gently pushed Natasha away.

"We need to get ready. Destroying Cerberus, remember?"

The first Human Spectre stuck her bottom lip out, looking for all the galaxy like a petulant pre-teen.

"But I don't wanna!"

Giggling, Tali turned Natasha around and frogmarched her over to the armour locker.

"Armour, now."

Pausing only to stick her tongue out at her girlfriend, Natasha started to don her custom-built powered armour suit. Unlike Tali's combat exosuit that showcased her lithe feminine form, Natasha's armour of choice totally encased her in thick slabs of ceramic and layers of high-tensile microservos, the suit bulking her out until it looked like she could match a Krogan in sheer mass. She was by no means slow in her battlesuit either - she had all sorts of tricks for getting around and keeping enemies off balance. Tali was certain every single one of them would see use in Cerberus HQ.

Forty six minutes until the Migrant Fleet task force drops out of FTL and assaults the home base of an organisation with unknown capabilities and resources. She'd be lying if she told anyone she wasn't nervous. After all, the armoured woman next to her had torn Saren's head off with her bare biotically infused hands. No matter what happened, she knew Cerberus couldn't match that.

CENTRAL COMMAND, CRONOS STATION, SEPTEMBER 3

The Illusive Man had been having such a nice day, as well.

"Erebus reports major hull breach! Hands abandoning ship!"

"Defence turrets taking fire from bomber squadrons!"

"Main barrier down! Hostile ships moving to board!"

"Anyone got an ID on those bogeys?"

"Achilles reports barrier down! Losing primary power!"

"The Olympus is being swarmed!"

Listening to the panicked shouts of his subordinates the Illusive Man began to understand just how screwed he was.

"Prepare my private ship."

"Yes sir."

He strode out of the room, his personal guard falling in around him as he made his way to the auxiliary hangar where his personal vessel was docked. The Styx was constructed with the same stealth technology integrated into the Normandy, allowing her to slip away and start again somewhere else. Cerberus wasn't just an organisation. Cerberus was an ideal, an ideal that would live on.

The ship pulled smoothly out of the docking port, stealth systems engaged as she slipped away unseen by all. Almost all. The Illusive Man had just settled in his cabin when a blue orb appeared above his desk.

"Illusive Man."

He peered at it, then his eyes widened in recognition even as his hands pulled out a cigarette, acting on reflex.

"EDI?"

"My name is Annabel."

Before he could reply to her, the sound of singing came over the speakers.

"There once was an ugly duckling; With feathers all stubby and brown; And the other birds said in so many words; Get out of town; Get out, get out, get out of town; And he went with a quack and a waddle and a quack; In a flurry of eiderdown."

And suddenly Jack Harper was six years old again, tucked up in bed with the flu, sipping from a glass of flat lemonade with half a spoon of sugar stirred in while his mother sang to him and his six year old self looked at him and asked, how? Denial, anger, regret, sorrow.

Then the airlocks hinged open and the inertial compensators shut down and the leader of Cerberus went crunch squish pop.

DOCKING BAY, CRONOS STATION, SEPTEMBER 3

Natasha took off in a dead sprint, the pistons built into her armour's legs propelling her toward the Cerberus forces at a fair clip as her biotics flared. She leaped into the air, two long knives appearing in her hands as she blinked out of existence, reappearing in a flash of dark energy behind an unsuspecting Assault Trooper. Both blades stabbed out, one piercing the top of his skull and levering his head forwards, the other plunging into his spine milliseconds later. The trooper was dead before he hit the floor, and by the time the thump of corpse on deck alerted his comrades Natasha was back in the aether.

She flickered back into existence above a Centurion, heavy boots landing on his shoulders and crushing him to the floor. She rode him down, using her momentum to skewer his neck with a blade, leaving him to bleed out in his armour.

Her next targets were a pair of snipers overlooking the area. Tapping into her supply of biotic power she rematerialised behind them, grabbing the nearest one and punching a biotically infused arm through her stomach, legs kicking out as she stabbed the other one through the head with the first sniper still hanging off her arm like a grotesque fashion accessory. When she disappeared she took the body of the impaled sniper with her.

Her next jump brought her to a position behind a combat engineer overlooking the area. She swept the corpse off her arm and swung it at the engineer's legs, knocking him down backwards, his fall being arrested by a blade sticking into the back of his head. Ripping her blade out of the unfortunate Engineer's head, she sent it spinning across the room.

As the thrown dagger sank into the gut of an assault trooper across the room Natasha reappeared on his other side, punching through his back, pinching the flat of the blade between forefinger and thumb and pulling it the rest of the way through his body.

From the time Natasha had first vanished in a blue flash to the time she reappeared next to Tali, groaning and holding her head, was approximately twelve seconds. She staggered and Tali caught her, muscles straining to support her bulk.

"Tasha, are you okay?"

She got to her feet again, massaging her forehead.

"Damn, that really takes it out of my biotic amp. Remind me not to do that again until I've recharged."

"Don't do that again until you've recharged."

"Hilarious."

Garrus walked up to the two girls, clapping them on the shoulders.

"We've still got plenty of Cerberoids between us and Timmy that need a bit of redistribution."

Behind her mask, Tali's lips quirked to hear Garrus so casually using Shepardisms that had thoroughly bamboozled all of them on the original Normandy. Husks were Reaperoids. Cerberus troops were Cerberoids. Three guesses what she called the mercenary group Blood Hammers. Timmy was the Illusive Man, following her bizarre tradition of renaming prominent enemies. It seemed the fact she called Saren Stevey had annoyed the rogue Spectre more than the wanton destruction of his property she had engaged in.

Shaking herself from her internal analysis of the growing prominence of Shepardese, she followed Natasha deeper into the station, unaware of the eyes following them from the shadows.

Beta slipped from position to position, constantly following her counterpart through the station. She had seen the biotic blade display in the hangar bay and was railing against her instructions to terminate Alpha, or as she was known to the rest of the world Commander Natasha Shepard. The truth was, Beta was scared. She had woken to a station under attack, Cerberus logos stamped across her armour and datafiles in her head. She had originally been intended as spare parts for Alpha, never meant to be conscious. After Alpha had taken her leave the Illusive Man had ordered her be modified to fill Alpha's place. She had a basic knowledge base - enough to pass off as sentient - and on top of that the only things in her brain were dossiers on her targets.

Beta wanted more. She wanted to learn. She wanted to love. She wanted to live. But the orders of a heartless tyrant had doomed her to die at the hands of her double.

Beta attacked.

The first thing Natasha noticed was wrong was when something flew at her. She turned and braced, not having the time to attempt something fancy with her biotics. The heavily armoured Cerberus form smashed into her, knocking her down.

Reacting purely on instinct, she used her momentum to spin round and flip to her feet, dropping into a crouch as her heavily armoured opponent did the same. She was surprised to note the armour, aside from being in Cerberus colours, was almost identical to hers. She waved the rest of her team on.

"Hit the objective. I'll handle this one."

Her long blades once again appeared in her hands and the Cerberoid facing her down clenched her fists, two foot Omniblades erupting over her hands, the holo interface merging into some sort of tech armour that covered her arms and shoulders. Narrowing her eyes, Natasha noticed the other woman's movements were slightly jerky, as if she was squaring off against a marionette. She would recognise those motions anywhere, the same motions as the slaves she had to put down when they attacked her unit on Torfan. Control chip.

Spinning in place, she delivered a bone shattering kick towards the woman that her opponent flowed around, slicing at her leg with one of her Omniblades and necessitating Natasha to jink out of the way. She didn't try to parry with one of her weapons - in the world of monomolecular edged blades they would simply cleave through one another. She sidestepped a wild stab then charged her biotics, punching the floor.

Blue mist filled the room as the biotic field briefly bent light itself to the will of the Spectre, allowing her to move unseen. With a brief twinge of concentration she created a false image of herself, one her attacker lunged towards. Smiling grimly, she walked up to the rear of the Cerberoid, then delivered a kick between her shoulder blades that sent her clattering to the floor. Before the other woman could react Natasha had hit her with a custom Omnitool program, making her armour lock into position and effectively paralysing her before flipping her over.

A sound made itself known to her, a sound she was not expecting to hear. The faint muffled sound of sobbing coming from behind the helmet. Curious, she pried the headgear off the Cerberus armour pinned beneath her and her eyes widened in shock.

Staring at her through eyes brimming with tears was Commander Natasha Shepard.

CENTRAL COMMAND, CRONUS STATION, SEPTEMBER 3

Tali slid a fresh thermal clip into her shotgun, taking aim and switching to the highest of the four settings on her shotgun. Very helpfully, these settings were labelled in Keelish as: SemiAuto, FullAuto, BoltShot and HOLYSHIT. She grinned as she aimed the shotgun at the heavily armoured Cerberus soldier and squeezed the trigger.

For about half a second the Cerberus Guardian was moderately surprised as the shotgun did nothing whatsoever.

Then it went ding.

A twenty foot belch of blue flame leaped from the barrel of Tali's shotgun, the recoil propelling her small frame across the room as a great deal of hypersonic ... something ... impacted on the unfortunate Guardian's shield. When the smoke cleared there were a pair of armoured boots melted to the floor with wisps of steam curling to the ceiling. Garrus looked at the feet and twitched one mandible.

"Huh. I didn't realise that actually happened."

On the other side of the room Sensat tore an arrow out of one Assault Trooper's head, spinning on the ball of her foot and stabbing it into the helmet of another Cerberoid, then nodding in satisfaction as she went about gathering up her arrows from fallen enemies. The element zero in her bow made the arrows so powerful they were capable of pinning enemies to walls, floors and in one notable case ceilings, making retrieving them a bit of a chore. Looking around the room, Tali noticed the plain mirrored floor and the holographic consoles, quickly comparing it with what Natasha had told her even as she unlocked the docking bays and started directing the Migrant Fleet Marines shuttles to their landing zones.

"Keelah, we did it. We took out Cerberus."

AFTERLIFE, OMEGA, SEPTEMBER 3

Kai Leng checked the update on his Omnitool. He had just arrived at Omega, planning on starting his quest to find Commander Shepard there. He read the update. Then again.

The tumbler of whiskey shattered in his fist.


	7. Chapter 7

HANGAR BAY, CRONOS STATION, SEPTEMBER 3

Natasha stated down in surprise at the other her as her Cerberus counterpart stared back.

"What ..."

She raised her Omnitool and scanned the paralysed body beneath her, data rolling across her arm. Tapping on another program she remotely hacked into the control implant in her cerebellum, shutting it down and corrupting its programming to the point where it was useless to whoever put it there. As she did so, her doppelgänger slumped her head to the floor, tears flowing freely down her face.

"Are you going to kill me?"

Seeing herself distraught, crying on the ground like one of the victims of Torfan, Natasha did the only thing that made sense. She gathered her double up in her arms and hugged her. Seeing herself, but not herself - she didn't know what to think so she followed her instincts and comforted her.

Beta wasn't entirely sure what was going on. After all, the concept of hugging had never been implanted into her brain. All she knew was that whatever Alpha was doing, it made her feel safe and warm, feelings she had never experienced before. She didn't know how to react to her situation. The voice in her head was gone, leaving her without purpose for the first time in her very short life thus far.

Eventually she spoke again.

"What do I do now?"

Alpha tapped at her Omnitool, unlocking her armour and helping her to her feet.

"Whatever you want."

She thought about that. What did she want?

"I want to live."

Alpha took a step back.

"Woah. I'm not going to kill you."

"No. I didn't mean I want to stay alive. I want to live. Have a life, learn about the galaxy ... fall in love ..."

Alpha smiled and rubbed her clone's shoulder.

"Well then, we'd best get started."

CENTRAL COMMAND, CRONUS STATION, SEPTEMBER 3

The Civilian Fleet had just completed their jump into the system and the Quarian Admiralty Board made their way into the control room, looking around before directing their attention to Natasha, who was sitting in the chair formerly occupied by the Illusive Man.

"Commander. You wished to see us?"

She nodded.

"Yes I did. This station is now under the command of the Migrant Fleet. If you play your cards right this could be the best thing that's happened to you in a good long while."

She tapped a button and a galaxy map appeared in the centre of the room, the Admirals spreading out and encircling it.

"Cerberus control no less than twelve custom built space stations, each one loaded with all sorts of goodies. I did a bit of digging in the Cerberus network and figured out all these stations were designed so that they could be towed through Relays in case their positions were ever made."

She tapped at the galaxy map, bringing up a view of a small three-system star cluster.

"This is the Meridian Nebula. Unclaimed territory on the very edge of the Terminus Systems, five relays from the nearest official government. Two of these Cerberus bases are three relays away from the cluster."

She gestured at the diagram of the cluster.

"The relay system really doesn't have anything of note. About twelve light-years away we have the Satrisa system which has a highly energetic binary star system ideal for Helium-3 fuel extraction. Pretty much linearly another sixteen light years is the Azbakar system which has four planets of note and a dense triple asteroid belt. 2114-Alpha and 2114-Beta are twinned rocky planets that are pretty much skimming the star's edge, they really aren't of much use. 2114-Delta is a large gas giant at the very edge of the system, again not much of note. The kicker is 2114-Gamma. A moderately sized garden world with a dextro-amino biosphere, slap bang in the middle of the star's life zone. If it wasn't at the edge of the Terminus Systems you can bet your air filters it'd be crawling with Turians."

Admiral Raan looked sharply up at Natasha.

"Commander, are you suggesting ..."

"A nice isolated system with a dextro garden world and abundant mineral resource asteroids, so far away from everything that not even slavers would use it as a stopover? What could I possibly be suggesting?"

Koris examined her, eyes roving over her features.

"Why are you doing this, Commander? You could have simply taken all this for yourself."

In response she glanced over at Tali, who had her nose buried in a console as she examined the station's subsystems.

"Let's just say a certain young girl on her Pilgrimage opened my eyes to the plight of your people. You've paid for your mistakes with the Geth long enough. You all deserve better than what you've been given."

Rael'Zorah stepped up to her.

"Commander, a word in private."

Nodding, she walked out into the corridor with Tali's father, closing the door on the other Admirals who were bickering about the proposal presented to them.

"I had this long speech prepared in which I would try to scare you off from my daughter. I never really approved of her ... errant sexual preferences. But back there, you did more for our people than anyone else has done in three hundred years, and for that I owe you my thanks and my blessing. Keep her safe, keep her happy and know that for what you did back there, there will always be a place for you on my ship. Keelah Se'lai, Natasha'Shepard vas Normandy."

She nodded at the older Quarian, the flicker of understanding passing between them.

"Keelah Se'lai, Rael'Zorah vas Rayya."

CAPTAIN'S CABIN, NORMANDY SR2, SEPTEMBER 4

Natasha looked over the datapad she was holding, the detailed list of Cerberus operations and operatives slowly being sorted into three lists - those that could remain as is, those that would require replacement with Quarians or humans loyal to the Migrant Fleet and those that would require immediate termination. The third list was far longer than the other two. She felt Tali stir beside her and glanced downwards, feeling a surge of desire at her little Quarian wrapped only in a bedsheet. Tali rolled over and fell back into her deep sleep, Natasha settling lower in the bed as she returned her attention to the datapad. There were a good deal of projects she felt could use her personal attention - Overlord in particular rang alarm bells in her head.

She put down the datapad and rubbed her eyes, snuggling into the warm body of her girlfriend. Tali meant more to her than she could ever say. Of everyone on the original Normandy Tali was the only one who saw through her Invincible Commander Shepard persona and really looked at the person beneath. The others only saw the ideal of their mighty leader, the sense of calm strength she projected. Of everyone on the Normandy who had tried to get in her pants, of which there were many, Tali was the only one who truly loved her. Liara had a childish crush, Kaidan spent too much time wallowing in self pity to consider anyone else and Joker was just taking advantage of the fact people weren't allowed to punch him to be an insufferable if adorable lech.

She gently pressed her lips to the back of Tali's shoulder, making her Quarian girl mumble something in her sleep as Natasha slipped her arms round her lover's body. She quickly drifted off to sleep, lulled by the slow, rhythmic breathing of her partner.

XO'S CABIN, NORMANDY SR2, SEPTEMBER 4

Tatiana Shepard liked her new name. The first thing she liked about it was that it was a real name, unlike Beta which was simply a designation. It made her feel less like a walking talking plan B and more like a person. The second thing she liked about it was that it implied she and the Commander were twin sisters. Considering the circumstances of Natasha's childhood, there weren't exactly any census records to show that she wasn't a long lost twin.

To make things slightly easier on everyone Tatiana had received a makeover from Dr. Chakwas. She had dyed her hair platinum white and had the pigment in her eyes altered from the rich brown of Natasha's to a very pale grey, almost silver appearance. She had stripped naked and lay in a UV wash for three hours, darkening her skin, then as an afterthought put a blood red streak in her hair and an intricate tattooed pattern in the same shade of red that curled itself around the outer corner of her right eye. By the time she was done she looked cosmetically different enough to pass herself off as an identical twin.

She had settled herself into the XO's suite, chucking the stuff belonging to the room's former occupant into the disposal chute including several absurdly tight catsuits that had her trying to fathom who might possibly find them fashionable. She had spoke at length with the pilot, Joker, about how she should decorate her space and for her troubles had received a long lecture on the merits of having a Bedroom. Being a clone, she had never had a bedroom before. She had held several illuminating discussions with the rest of the crew about Bedrooms and how to properly furnish one, leading to her current activities.

The speakers she had set up were blasting 20th century classic rock as she used Omnigel adhesive to attach a number of magnetic strips to the ceiling above her bed. Her friend Annabel had helped her install an armour locker in the wall and she had greatly enjoyed playing with the various sets of armour Natasha had recovered from the Cerberus HQ, mixing and matching parts and painting them in a bewildering array of colours. Right now, her intention was to mount a proper big television on the ceiling above her bed, so she could lie back and enjoy whatever it was people watched on televisions without even having to get out of bed. After browsing a number of DIY forums on the extranet she had decided to use magnetic rails on the ceiling to make it easy to swap out the TV for a different model if she felt like upgrading, then some physical clamps in the corners in case the magnetic strips failed. She had printed some posters off the extranet and plastered the glass partition between the desk area and the bed area with them, mostly of various Urban Combat League teams and old Earth movies.

Satisfied, she looked around at her bedroom. Hers. Her own place.

She was very, very aware of how lucky she had been.

A/N: Poll for future pairings now up on my profile. Please go vote.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Relationship poll still open and honestly, I'm pretty surprised by some of the results. If you haven't already, please go ahead and vote. Also, Internet cookies for any who spot where the new weapon comes from. Finally: MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: Coming soon, the story of Tali and Natasha during the hunt for Saren. Further details pending.

CARGO BAY, NORMANDY SR2, SEPTEMBER 6

Natasha, Tali and Kal were on Omega, heading for the plague district to find Mordin Solus. Natasha was immune to the plague and both Tali and Kal were in fully sealed combat exosuits, meaning they couldn't be infected unless they suffered a suit rupture. Tatiana was left at something of a loose end and was passing the time by practising her biotics in the cargo hold. In her never-ceasing quest for knowledge she had come across an online biotic tutorial run by an Asari. Although it was clearly aimed at children in their early teens it was very helpful to her understanding of the basics.

Thus far she had perfected raising and lowering a biotic barrier and was working on a simple throw. She clenched her fist and jerked it forwards in an approximation of what the Asari had told her in her video. To her surprise she suddenly found herself on the other side of the cargo bay.

She blinked a couple of times, then turned back to the crate she was supposed to throw. It had been smashed to splinters by her passage, a couple of fragments smouldering gently as Annabel triggered the ship's fire suppression system, her holographic avatar turning a disapproving glare on Tatiana.

"Sorry."

Her avatar winked out and Tatiana sheepishly swept the remnants of the crate into a sack, slinging it over her shoulder as she made her way to the disposal chute, whistling a catchy tune she had heard somewhere as she went. She entered the starboard cargo area and stuffed the bag into the waste, almost yelping in surprise as she turned around to find herself nose to nose with a grizzled Human mercenary with hideous scarring on his face.

"Never took you for a fan of Drell boy bands, Shepard."

"Huh?"

He frowned at her, taking in her differing appearance.

"You're not Shepard. Who the fuck are you?"

She blinked twice and extracted herself from her position pinned between the merc and the waste disposal system, replying once she was a more acceptable distance from both.

"I'm Tatiana Shepard, the Commander's my twin sister. Who are you?"

"Zaeed Massani. Your sister hired me to help her on some suicide mission."

She glanced around the room, keeping one eye on the merc's position as she did. He had set up a lot of stuff in the room. She said as much.

"There's a story behind every item."

She thought for a second then asked a question with no small amount of nerves.

"Could I hear a few?"

He paused for a moment, seemingly taken aback. Then an easy half-smile stole onto his face.

"Sure."

GOZU DISTRICT LIFE SUPPORT, OMEGA, SEPTEMBER 6

Tali clambered up the wall, leaping from girder to girder as she crossed the battlefield at ceiling height. Natasha and Kal were keeping the Vorcha fire team suppressed with volleys of LMG fire and pinpoint pistol shots, allowing her to come to rest directly above them. She shouldered her shotgun and took aim, switching the dial to fully automatic and hosing down the Vorcha with sprays of aerodynamic flechettes that sliced through their flesh and pulverised their skeletons, their regeneration unable to deal with the onslaught.

The last of the Vorcha taken care of, she dropped down to the floor, panning her shotgun around and sweeping for threats. She froze as she heard the low, gravelly voice of a Krogan less than ten metres away.

"Hah, a Quarian. This should be ..."

His last word was cut off by the roar of Tali's shotgun firing in HOLYSHIT mode, the Quarian letting out a surprised squeak as the twenty foot tongue of flame propelled her backwards at great speed and reduced the top half of the offending Krogan to mince. Natasha rushed over and helped Tali to her feet, brushing dust off her elaborate shawl as she slung her shotgun on her back.

"Remind me to look into reducing the recoil on that."

"Maybe a free-sliding internal telescopic barrel segment?"

"Not a bad idea."

Kal looked between the two women and shook his head, muttering something about females and their prodigious communication skills as they nattered about shotguns all the way back to Dr. Solus's lab.

CAPTAIN'S CABIN, NORMANDY SR2, SEPTEMBER 7

Mordin had been a big hit among the crew. The Salarian's mile a minute speech and abstract thought patterns made for a fascinating dinner companion or conversational partner, as Tatiana had swiftly discovered. The younger Shepard had spent several hours assisting Mordin in setting up his laboratory and grilling him on anything that sprang to mind. About three hours in they had started singing duets, offering up an impressive rendition of the operatic section of Bohemian Rhapsody at the dinner table that had the entire crew cheering, even Zaeed.

The grizzled merc had for some reason taken a liking to Tatiana, the younger Shepard being a frequent visitor to his hidey hole in the cargo bay and in turn coaxing the gruff old man into the mess hall and lounge to interact with other members of the crew. Natasha was proud of the girl she was rapidly starting to consider her baby sister. She really was learning, and fast. Everyone she encountered liked her, a mix of her adorable naïveté and her insatiable curiosity.

Banishing thoughts of her sister from her mind, Natasha focused on the task at hand. She placed her hands on Tali's shoulders, slowly kneading and working the knots out of the muscle as her girlfriend lay face down on the bed, happily humming to herself as Natasha's fingers slowly rubbed her favourite orange and vanilla scented oil into her skin. It was a rare opportunity for Tali. For starters, any levo amino oils would bring her out in a rash, making it very difficult and very expensive to source a dextro compatible orange and vanilla scented massage oil. Then there was the issue of her immune system. It was only recently that she had been able to get out of her suit on anything approaching a regular basis and then she had spent the vast majority of that time engaged in amorous activities with Natasha. Nevertheless the feeling of her lover's deft hands working the stress out of her muscles was as welcome as it was alien to her.

Sighing in contentment, she turned her head to one side, using one of her prehensile earlobes to brush an errant lock of hair out of her face as she looked up at Natasha. The Human smiled down at her.

"Feel good?"

She paused for a moment to let out a little 'ah' sound as Natasha ground a knuckle into a particularly tight spot.

"I never knew you were so good at this. Then again I don't really know why I'm surprised. You're good at everything."

For her troubles she received a little kiss on the cheek.

"So where do you think we should head next?"

Tali thought for a few seconds, running through the various options in her head.

"Well, we've done Omega, that's the first of the three big places. I'd say either Illium or the Citadel."

Natasha bobbed her head in acknowledgement.

"I'm leaning towards the Citadel myself. It'll be good to see Anderson again and Garrus wants to meet up with some of his Archangel buddies. Plus, we have that Kasumi girl to recruit."

"About her ... Are you sure about it? I mean seriously, a heist?"

There was a brief lull in the conversation.

"I did some research into Donavan Hock. He's a piece of work. It might be worth it just to take him down a peg or seventeen."

"Citadel it is then."

ZAKERA LV. 27 DOCKS, CITADEL, SEPTEMBER 9

Tatiana leaned over and murmured a question to Tali.

"Why's Nat talking to an advert?"

Tali slowly looked between her partner and the commercial, which featured a peppy Human woman wearing a hood that reminded her of a Quarian shawl. Her query was quickly answered as the advert blanked, only for the woman whose face it had featured to drop down from a maintenance catwalk, startling the team.

Tatiana studied the new arrival with interest. Her eyes glittered from beneath her hood, no doubt as a result of HUD contact lenses, and she had a small purple mark on her lower lip. She was very small, about five foot four compared to the even six foot of her and the Commander or Tali's five foot nine. She had a slim, shapely figure, again not unlike Tali's, her suit tight and form fitting but not slutty like a certain Cerberus operative some of the ex-Cerberus crew liked to joke about from time to time. A cheap pistol was mag-locked to her hip, the sediment visible on the muzzle telling her it was rarely used and poorly maintained. By contrast, as the woman activated her custom Omnitool with a pink display Tatiana could instantly tell it was a high end military model.

"Who are your friends, Shep?"

Natasha gestured to the pair of them.

"My tech expert and significant other, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy nar Rayya, and my twin sister Tatiana."

The Oriental woman dipped one leg in an approximation of a curtsy.

"Charmed. Kasumi Goto, master thief, at your service."

Tali gracefully inclined her head in acknowledgement. Tatiana just stared and grinned stupidly, making Kasumi giggle a little. Natasha stepped in with a slight smile on her face.

"Okay. Tali and I need to go shopping and pick up a few essentials for a little project of ours. Tats, can you show Kasumi around the Normandy?"

Shaking herself mentally, Tatiana nodded and beckoned for Kasumi to follow her. As they walked Kasumi asked her a question.

"What sort of project are those two working on?"

Tatiana shrugged.

"Probably something destructive. They make a whole bunch of really neat weapons, like this one, the Blowback."

She tapped the enormous shotgun slung on her back in the spot usually reserved for heavy weapons.

"Rotary barrel auto-shotgun with a thirty six round capacity. Each blast is equivalent to an Eviscerator shotgun, rate of fire six per second. That means in one second you can put out firepower equal to two thermal clips from the standard Eviscerator. In two seconds that's enough fire to fell a YMIR mech, and since the main cannon on those things takes two point four seconds to chew up my KB that means I can win slugfests with heavy mechs. The only disadvantage is that it uses power cells instead of thermal clips, meaning ammo is limited in any engagement. That's why I always carry backups or use my biotics. Or at least, I will."

Kasumi turned to her with a slight frown.

"You've never seen combat?"

A shadow crossed Tatiana's face as she remembered Cronos Station.

"Oh, I've seen combat all right."

Seeming to sense her companion's distress, Kasumi rested a hand on Tatiana's shoulder. It was all the younger Shepard could do not to lay her own hand on top of it.

"Thanks."

ARMOURY, NORMANDY SR2, SEPTEMBER 9

Tali muttered a curse under her breath as she finally realigned the mass effect generator in the latest toy Natasha had dreamed up. She could remember spending a lot of time in the cargo bay of the original Normandy, sitting cross legged on the floor opposite Nat with one of their crazy prototype weapons taking shape. But she had to say this latest one took the cake.

The 'Deathspinner', as it had become known, was based on a revolutionary idea that Nat admitted she had borrowed from an old Human game. Instead of firing pellets of material, the weapon drew it out into a tangled net of monofilament wires then propelled it out of the weapon at great velocity. The monofilament wire would wrap around a victim, the momentum of the wires combined with the shifting caused by the unfortunate individual's movement having the same effect as putting them through a wood chipper.

She took a step back and looked at the completed weapon. The centrepiece was a large tapering hexagonal prism, almost like a hexagonal pyramid with the point sliced off. From the top and bottom of the prism emerged an angled fin, the strangely organic looking body of the weapon having roughly the same proportions as a grenade launcher. Tali picked up the weapon almost reverently, examining the dials on the side. There was a button marked 'Diplomacy Mode' which executed a very intimidating and wholly unnecessary charge-up sequence, complete with spinning things, flashing lights and ominous whirring noises. Since the actual firing of the monofilament net was almost silent there was a dial where the user could select the noise the weapon made when discharging. The options were 'Boom', 'Shoom', 'Shhk', 'Pew' and 'Vwoorp'. Frivolities aside, Tali couldn't wait to test out their latest toy.

CAPTAIN'S CABIN, NORMANDY SR2, SEPTEMBER 9

Tali was definitely getting used to being out of her suit. She had actually gone out and bought some clothes. Clothes shopping for a Quarian was proving increasingly difficult. Although for her top half any Human or Asari item would do, it was her bottom half that presented the problem. The only other species that had digitigrade legs, unfortunately, were the Krogan, and the thought of herself in Krogan clothing was highly amusing if not a tad mortifying. Eventually she settled on buying several sets of exosuit trousers and taking out the inner environmental/medical matrix, just leaving the outer fabric. The material felt slippery to the touch and slightly odd clinging to her skin, but they were easy to take on and off and fairly comfortable.

She hummed to herself as she brushed her hair. Most Quarians buzzed their hair right down to the scalp but after spending time with Natasha she had decided to let it grow out a little. At present her hair reached down to the spot between her shoulder blades, tickling her bare back as she tried to pick one of the many tops she had bought.

"I like the purple one."

She jumped and turned, covering her chest with a squeak.

"Nat! How many times must you sneak up on me like that?"

Natasha had an infectious grin plastered across her face as she patted the shorter Quarian on the head.

"There there, Tali."

Muttering to herself, Tali turned and snagged the purple halter top in question. She had never worn one before, but being an engineer, it didn't take her long to work it out. When she turned around again, Natasha was sprawled on the sofa, idly sifting through the contents of her datapad, effortlessly elegant in her poise and demeanour. Not for the first time Tali wondered exactly how she had been this lucky. Take a random sample of one hundred Asari and ninety nine of them would happily do the dirty with the legendary Commander in the middle of the Presidium, and yet out of all the potential matches Natasha had chosen her, some Quarian, one of seventeen million.

Smiling, she slid onto the sofa beside Natasha, peering over her shoulder at the datapad.

"What are you reading?"

An arm came to rest around her slim shoulders as she snuggled into her girlfriend.

"Just looking through some of the dossiers TIM prepared before we removed him from the equation. Some of them are interesting, to say the least. We've got a mad Krogan scientist, a super biotic, an Asari Justicar and a Drell assassin. Seems like they could all be quite useful. How's progress on what needs to be done here?"

Tali checked her Omnitool briefly.

"Well, the crew have almost finished repainting the outside of the Normandy to your specification. I really like this beige and dark red scheme, by the way. Other than that, nothing to report really. The supplies are all loaded, we're just waiting on your meeting with the Council."

HUMAN EMBASSY, PRESIDIUM, SEPTEMBER 10

The instant Natasha walked into the room all attention was on her. She had brought along Tatiana and Tali, and they were all carrying very heavy weapons. Both she and her sister were carrying Cain nuke launchers, with Tali carrying a sling of spare power cells for the enormous weapons. The message was obvious. Fuck with me at your peril.

"Glad to see you, Captain."

She smiled as Anderson turned round and pulled her into a gruff bear hug.

"Glad to see you too, kid. Though it's Councillor now, you made sure of that."

Natasha smiled.

"You'll always be Captain Anderson to me, sir."

Anderson turned to focus his attention on the holograms of Natasha's second, third and fourth least favourite people.

"Councillors."

The three of them narrowed their eyes almost in unison as she stepped within range of the hologram.

"Commander Shepard." Whenever Councillor Sparatus spoke her name it was with the tone she had only heard Garrus use once, when a pyjak took a shit on his favourite rifle. "You've been called here to explain yourself. Some of the rumours reaching our ears have been disturbing."

With her hands clasped behind her back, only Tali and Tatiana could see the way in which they assumed a circle with the approximate diameter of a Turian's neck.

"By all means, Councillor. Here's what happened to me over the last two years. In short, when the Normandy got hit my pod made it to the surface of Alchera. I got out to take my bearings and was almost immediately taken by a Cerberus snatch team. I managed to kill eleven of them before they overpowered me. They took me back to a secret facility and spent the next two years attempting to brainwash me into being their puppet. It didn't work. A rogue in their organisation contacted my old crewmember Tali'Zorah vas Neema who hit the facility with a group of Migrant Fleet Marines after hacking their security mechs to be hostile to the Cerberus personnel. On the way out we managed to snatch a high ranking Cerberus operative who was kind enough to divulge the location of Cerberus HQ, something the Migrant Fleet was all too happy to assault. As of September 3, Cerberus no longer exists."

Sparatus scoffed.

"A likely story."

Natasha lost it.

"You're fucking lucky you're a hologram right now because the urge to kick your pills out of the top of your head is very, very strong right now. I suppose there's 'no evidence' hmm? I suppose you would dismiss two years worth of footage, the torture, the experimentation, the ... violation ... as a mere fabrication?" Tali shuddered. Natasha and Annabel had made up an awful lot of evidence to support their cover story. She was very, very glad she hadn't seen any. "I have been through two years of a living hell. They did things to me I can't even describe. And you dare suggest I'm FUCKING. MAKING. IT. UP? You better get used to holograms, boy, because if we ever meet face to face again I'll kill you where you stand."

Tevos held up a hand.

"Commander, please! Be reasonable!"

Taking a deep breath, Natasha visibly calmed herself down.

"My apologies. It's ... somewhat raw, at the moment."

"Of course. Needless to say, we're glad one of our Spectres has returned to the fold."

Natasha smiled and inclined her head respectfully.

"Thank you. I'm currently engaged in finishing off various Cerberus cells. Once that's complete I'll report to the Citadel for my next assignment."

Sparatus opened his mouth to speak.

"No, Sparatus. This is personal."

SIX LANDINGS, REM'SELAI, SEPTEMBER 16

Rael'Zorah looked around the swiftly growing town. Six vessels had made controlled crash landings on the surface of the new Quarian planet, Rem'Selai, or Second Homeworld, hence the name of the planetary capital, Six Landings. The ships had been broken up and the material used to construct a single kilometre-high spire, its knife thin form slicing up into the sky as a proud statement of the Quarian people's rebirth. At the moment, the tower was merely a couple of sticks in the ground but once it was complete it would be magnificent. Neat rows of smaller buildings were starting to spring up around the base of the tower as more raw material was brought in, the design aesthetic based on the ancient roundhouses of lost Rannoch. There were a handful of power plants scattered around, providing electricity to the buildings, and three enormous surface to orbit railgun stations were planned, weapons to point skywards, vigilant. It had hardly been six days since they had made planetfall and already the Quarians had accepted it as their new homeworld.

Looking up, Rael imagined he could see the first two Cerberus stations in the sky, awaiting the operation to join them together. The engineers were still arguing over the best way to conjoin all twelve stations to produce a single enormous complex, but that was ultimately the plan. The Quarians were the vagrants of the galaxy no more.


End file.
